Akira woke up to the sound of morning activity outside the guest tent he and the others were sleeping in.

It had taken them a day to get back to camp due to some of the warrior's injuries slowing them down, causing them to arrive late last night.

He laid under his blanket thinking about how exotic his life had become ever since that night when he met Grand and Yuki. For a few seconds, he held doubts as to whether or not he would ever be able to find his clan or be forced to wander the kingdoms until he died.

His eye caught glimpse of the slow blinking notification icon that he had forgotten about with all the activity that had been going on. He lazily opened the notifications.

Title Upgraded!

Clumsy Rescuer of Damsel in Distress from Evil Queen:

+5 Fame

+1 Honor

+1 Coolness

Coolness: an Imaginary stat that does not exist

Level up! Level 31.

Mileena has completed training and has been promoted to beginner Assassin.

Rare Ore Desorium Obtained.

Desorium can only be found deep underground in the desert. Good for creating small weapons.

Queen Ants Stinger Obtained.

He allocated his points into his regular stats and sat up. He didn't have time to be lazy since he had to finish a few errands before leaving the lamia tribe.

Mileena and Varbu were still sleeping so he exited the tent as quiet as he could and walked to the makeshift open forge that the lamia used to create and maintain their weapons and armor.

Due to Mileena's daggers breaking in the last fight he had to create a new set for her. Otherwise, she would be unable to fight in the tournament.

He was glad that Slazz had given him permission to use the tribe's small forge.

Akira stood next to the roaring fire of the forge. He stared at the flames as he thought of what type of daggers would fit Mileena. He racked his brain and went over all his memories of the last few weeks that they had been together.

'Ah! That's right, I need to figure out a way to make weapons that can hold poison properly,' though Akira.

He pulled out all the different types of ores he had collected over the months and looked at each of them but the only one that fit what he wanted was the recently obtained Desorium.

It was a shame to use it right away only a day after receiving such a rare ore but if he didn't use it now then it would be a waste to let it just sit in his bag.

The Desorium was a higher quality ore so it would be able to take more abuse but that alone didn't guarantee that the poison wouldn't eat through it.

He rummaged through his bag not knowing what he was looking for just trying to get a spark of an idea on how to solve his problem.

His hand stopped when he grabbed onto the small pouch that contained multiple large Sandworm teeth. He hadn't really paid attention to them after receiving them since he didn't know what he could really use the teeth for other than jewelry. He had planned to just sell them later but never got to it.

He pulled the pouch out and looked at the teeth inside inspecting them.

Baby teeth of desert sandworm: has the special trait of resisting poison due to the natural poison of the sandworms saliva.

Hidden info: a material that can be used in creating an alloy by fusing it with another mineral.

Blacksmithing lvl up!

Dex +1

Hidden blacksmith sub-skill Bone alloy discovered.

Bone alloy allows you to use certain bones of strong monsters as a mineral component to create strong armor and weapons using the bones as a core component in the alloy.

To use a higher quality of bone raise blacksmithing skill.

“Interesting,” muttered Akira.

Without a second thought, he decided to test it out and threw the teeth into the fire.

The teeth began to glow as they sat in the fire but not much else changed Akira was forced to raise the temperature even higher to try and melt the tooth.

After a half hour of constant blowing the bellows, the teeth began to melt. Akira dropped the Desorium on top of the melting teeth and watched as it melted even faster than the teeth and mixed with the teeth.

When they both had melted all the way he opened the small stone door at the bottom of the forge and let the new alloy mixture flow out.

He let it cool down for a few minutes before retrieving the alloy and bringing it to an anvil, where he began the task of hammering, folding, and reheating the new alloy to make sure the two components were completely bonded together.

When he was satisfied with the new alloy metal he again reheated it and separated alloy into two separate portions before he began hammering away.

Akira's focus was only on the task at hand not bothering to notice that Slazz and a few other lamia blacksmiths had been watching him for some time now.

When he put the final touches on the daggers completing them he let out a sigh.

Akira gazed at the daggers for a short time, he felt they had an exotic look. The color was a golden tan due to both the Desorium and Desert Sandworm teeth being the same color.

The daggers had a slight curve at the end of each blade that he didn't remember doing while he was working on them.

The handles of each dagger had handguards with spikes for both helping protect and attack.

Ding!!

Blacksmithing lvl up! Lvl 9.

Item successfully created

Desone daggers (uncommon):

Durability: 70/70 | Main hand Damage: 25-33 Secondary:16-20

The Desone Daggers were created with the main purpose of being able to use poison. Thanks to the Baby desert sandworms teeth it can withstand all lesser poisons.

The blueprint for Desone daggers has been added to your list of know blueprints.

Akira clenched his fist and shook it in victory. Not only was he successful on his first try in experimenting with this exotic new way of blacksmithing, but the stats were also extremely good.

He had only one problem left and that was he needed to create a sheath that would be able to withstand the poison used by the daggers.

His mind wandered to the second thing had received in the dungeon, the Queen's stinger.

It was large and sturdy enough and since toxins from the queen passed through it there was no worry of the poison eating through it.

He spent another half hour cutting the stinger in half lengthwise, smoothing the edges until they were rounded with no flaws, and finishing carving out enough space for the daggers.

Shink! He let out another sigh of happiness. The daggers fit perfectly.

“My what a talented person you are. It is such a shame you have to leave otherwise I would want you to stay with us for a longer period,” said Slazz interrupting Akira's celebration.

Akira startled out of his admiration for his handiwork, looked up to see several faces looking back at him with great respect.

“Ah..yeah, I'm still a beginner,” said Akira modestly.

“The others are waiting for you at the stage for our farewell there is some food for you to replenish your strength,” said Slazz.

Akira picked up his tools and the new daggers before walking to the stage with Slazz.

Varbu and Mileena were standing next to a small group of Lamia.

Many of the warriors they had met over the past few days were not here but that was understandable as most didn't have any extra time to send them off and continued working on their daily tasks to keep the small tent city running.

Varbu handed Akira a plate with some unknown cooked meat and vegetables on top of freshly baked bread.

“This one has called the three of you here for a small chat before you leave. After experiencing the battle we had and seeing your teamwork here are my thoughts. Nyantail, your attack is decent for one as young as you are but you will not be able to solo strong opponents yet. Werewolf, your sustainability is decent but your damage is a bit lacking. If the two of you continue to work as well as did in the dungeon then you can cover each other's weakness in the coming fights. As for you Orc, your damage is great but only when it comes to blunt damage, you need to make sure that is not all you can do and you need to work more on your movement,” said Slazz thoughtfully.

“So these are the three that you took interest in father?” asked a young female voice next to Akira.

Akira turned to see Slaiza the enchanting dancer standing next to him. Her face from nose to throat was still covered by the thick dark blue half silk mask.

“Yes, that is so. Overall this one has concluded that as long as you keep in mind the tips taught to you and stick together you should have no problem with entering the tournament. As for winning, this one does not know about that, but I do know that you have shown yourself to be honorable warriors,” said Slazz.

Ding!

+5 Honor

“We thank you for your help in training us,” said Akira.

“I will take your teachings to heart,” said Varbu thumping his chest in the orc salute.

“Me too, I feel as if I have grown a great deal from the fight against the [Queen ant],” said Mileena shyly she was still not that talkative with strangers she did not know.

Akira guessed she was talking about the message he had seen about her becoming a beginner assassin.

“This one's daughter wants to give you a present as a show of friendship,” Slazz said to Mileena.

“Ah! I would be happy to receive it!” said Mileena.

“It is not much but I personally made it for you,” said Slaiza as she handed over a piece of folded dark blue silk.

Mileena held the silk and looked at it curiously wondering what it could be.

“It's a desert veil just like mine. It helps protect your face from the harsh desert sun, and it helps filter the air during a dusty day or a dust storm, and lastly, it gives you an alluring exotic look,” said Slaiza slyly looking at Akira.

Akira coughed and looked away his cheeks reddening.

“I too have something to give you since your daggers broke. I made them so that they can use lesser poison to further strengthen your attack power,” said Akira Handing over daggers.

“Thanks! I feel like it's my birthday!” said Mileena happily testing out the new daggers.

After Akira finished eating the food he had been given they continued to talk for a few more minutes before Akira and the rest of his companions said their goodbyes.

“It's has been nice meeting you,” said Akira firmly shaking Slaiza's hand.

“Yes, this one was intrigued by you as much as father was. I hope that we will be able to meet again in the future,” said Slaiza with a grin.

With that, they left the lamia tent city and continued their journey towards Otria.

***

As they moved towards the city they continued to hone their skills as a team.

Varbu continued to practice using the fire skill gem but was always getting tired after only casting it a few times. The fire attacks did little to no damage due to most of the desert creatures having fire resistance.

Akira's level was able to increase to level 32 due to all the fighting.

As they drew nearer to the capital city of Otria the small sand and dried mud pyramids changed into ones built out of sandstone that were two times as large, and now that they were only a day away from the capital they even saw pyramids made out of large granite blocks towering over all other pyramids.

Currently, they were hiding behind a dune because they had been surprised to have another encounter of a large group of [Fire ants] crossing the road and milling around the general area. It seemed that [Fire ants] were all too common in the desert.

He was shocked that something like this would be allowed to happen so close to the capital.

“Look someone's coming down the road!” said Mileena interrupting Varbu and Akira's conversation on whether or not they should backtrack and go around the [Fire ants].

“Do they have a death wish? There's too many of them!” said Varbu looking at the people on the road.

As they came closer at a quick pace Akira was able to see something he had only seen in the history books he had read when he was younger, Desert Chariots.

There wasn't just one, he continued to count them as one by one 30 chariots came into view. Each was pulled by two desert jaguars that were far taller and wider than any he had seen in the wild over the past weeks.

Akira was extremely interested in the chariots and looked them over. In each chariot, there were two people, a driver, and a warrior. The warriors each had numerous javelins and a large oversized crossbow.

The sun glinted off something metallic near the chariots spinning wheels.

It was a large blade extending out from both sides of the chariot at what would be the height of a human's knee.

“Uhh...they're not planning on attacking them with such a small group are they?” asked Varbu.

Akira shrugged. How should he know it was his first time seeing something like this in real life.

It only took a minute to find out that they did plan on fighting the [fire ants].

The 30 chariots silently split apart into two groups of 15 one going to the left and the other to the right fanning out to cover more area.

They ran right up next to the large swarm of [Fire ants] and turned their chariots perpendicular to them and drove on the outskirts of the large group.

The fight started as soon the chariots all finished lining up one after another behind the other.

They lessened the distance between the chariot and the enemy allowing the blade on the side of the chariot to cut through the swarming ants like it was nothing.

The Warriors sent out one cross-bolt after another into the mass of ants on the ground while the chariots ran circles around the [Fire ants] the circles grew smaller as they killed them in large numbers like it was nothing.

In less than ten minutes the swarm of almost a thousand [Fire ants] had been decimated by the fast-moving chariots. The people in the chariots had not lost a single person.

Akira and watched in amazement as the chariots regrouped into a column and headed back towards the city.

“So powerful!” said Mileena whose eyes were shining from the excitement of what had just happened.

“No, we don't know how strong they are. What they did was use tactics and the tools they had to overcome a far superior force,” said Akira who was deep in thought.

“Let's get moving. The city is to close to be wasting time here,” said Varbu.